UE Thamaturgy
Thamaturgy, General Info Thaumaturgy is the art of ritual essence manipulation using the magical laws of Creation and essence active objects (collectively referred to as Reagents.) Thaumaturgy is a lesser class of essence manipulation that the more advanced arts of sorcery (Spell Casting), Psycher Manipulation (Psychic Powers) and Charm based manipulation (general catch all for everything else.) The single most important aspect of Thaumaturgy is that it does not require an Awakened Essence to use and maybe learned by normal mortals. This is translated into the game system as characters not needing to have the Gift advantage to create or use thaumaturgic procedures. The negative part is that if you do not possess "The Gift" you have limited access to your Zeon pool and do not possess magical accumulation to allow you to charge Talisman on the fly and lack the ability to create Talismans at anything other than base potency. Unenlightened Mortals (no Gift) may only use thaumaturgic procedures as rituals and require reagents that are consumed to provide the needed essence. Enlightened beings (exalted, enlightened mortals, gods, elementals, etc) are able to correctly channel essence into the ritual and do not require as many reagents. All thaumaturgic procedures are minor magic and replicate or supplement spells of level 20 or lower. Thaumaturgy gives access to a wide range of effects but all are fairly minor in power compared to the higher level spells, higher activation psychic abilities and more powerful Ki abilities. Access to direct damage, state changes and AOE versions of both are severely limited in scope and power. Ripped from Exalted source material for illustration purposes. "Thaumaturgy is designed to be as multipurpose as possible but weaker than Charms, Sorcery or Necromancy. An experienced magician might know scores of rituals, each designed fro a specific limited purpose." "Such minor magic is called thaumaturgy in the texts of the First Age, and it is unique among magical disciplines in that its rituals draw upon arcane truths embedded in the natural laws and principles of Creation. Where Charms impose new states and events through Essence, thaumaturgic rituals coax the existing Essence patterns of the world to do something they are naturally prone to do, obviating the need for personal Essence expenditure. Thaumaturgy fails utterly before the spells of the Exalted, though, so any form of sorceress or necromantic counter magic completely destroys any form of lingering thaumaturgic effect or enchantment without any backlash of scattered Essence." Thaumaturgy is a special skill based on the Occult secondary ability and has a number of separate sub-schools called Arts. The Arts are Alchemy, Astrology, The Dead, Demon Summoning, Elemental Summoning, Enchantment, Geomancy, Husbandry, Spirit Beckoning, Warding and Exorcism and Weather Working. Each of the Arts requires the character to possess one or more secondary or primary abilities other than Occult to make full usage of it and have special rules related to it. A character's ability to utilize each Art is determined by the degree to which they have mastered that particular Art. Characters have one of four ratings in each art basic, initiate, adept, or master. (Levels 0, 1, 2, 3), which determines the maximum difficulty level of thaumaturgy procedures they made attempt. You may attempt any ritual with a rating equal to or less than your degree of mastery. Level 0 rituals can be performed by anyone who knows them and do not require any specific abilities beyond basic occult. There is no hard limit to the number of rituals which a character may possess. The vast majority of rituals known are minor effects for mundane usage and are not detailed but maybe accessed for stunting or story purposes. The number of starting rituals known is determined by the GM based on the background of the character and how much of a role he wishes to have thaumaturgy playing his game. (Yes, that's sexist, but it's written about me so bugger off.) Characters may know a number of degrees equal to their occult secondary ability and essence appraisal secondary ability added together and divided by 40. In order to take a degree, you must meet all of the minimums skill levels required for that ability. The primary prerequisite of all thaumaturgic Arts is a final occult secondary ability score of degree level times 30, some Arts have additional requirements. Each degree also has a cost in DP that must be paid to aquire it. Cost per Degree Lv Lv 1 Initiate: 10 DP Occult 30 Lv 2 Adept: 20 DP Occult 60 Lv 3 Master: 30 DP Occult 90 Performing a thaumaturgic ritual requires an occult check at the difficulty dependent on the level of the power and its complexity. Baseline difficulty for occult check Lv 0: Moderate Lv 1: Difficult Lv 2: Very Difficult Lv 3: Absurd As a final bonus characters gain a bonus to any knowledge checks relating to a Thamaturgic Art they have a degree in equal to (Degree x 15) The Summoning Arts These rules apply to the thamaturgical Arts of The Dead, Demon Summoning, Elemental Summoning, Spirit Beckoning and Warding and Exorcism. All of these Arts require the possession of the primary supernatural abilities of Summon, Control, Bind and Banish and dictate what types of beings can be affected with this abilities and to what degree. The setting is intentionally structured so as to allowed very limited and controlled access to creature summoning and control. IT IS HIGHLY SUGGESTED THAT YOU READ ALL OF THE MATERIAL BELOW IN THE ART OF BEGUILING BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO USE ANY OF THESE ARTS. Art of The Dead This Art allows the usage of Summon, Control, Bind and Banish on ghosts, zombies, necromatic beasties and the like. It has procedures that allow the user to communicate, enteract with and manipulate dead bodies, the animated dead, shadowlands, and includes banishing, warding and exorsisim. All aspects of this art other than banishing, exorsism and warding are viewed with great suspesion and are restricted in availablity in game. (And are restricted out right for players as is necromancy in general. If you are interested in exploring such options speak with the GM.) Art of The Dead has versions of the following Art of Warding rituals that only work agiainst Ghosts, Undead, and similar Necromatic Creations. Alarm Ward Against (Creature), Lesser Ward Against (Creature), Ward Against (Creature), Greater Ward Against (Creature), and the relevant Ward Maintenance and Keyed Ward Rituals. The Art of Demon Summoning Here is a direct reference from the Exalted source material on which this is based. "Wores yet, the terms of the surrender oaths that allow demons to be summoned into Creation merely bind demons to serve Exalts and gods who are powerful enough to enforce their will. Mortals may invite demons into Creation, but the provisions of those oaths do little to protect them and do not allow them to extract slavish servitude." The Art of Demon Summoning allows the application of the Summoning and Banish primary supernatural abilities to Demons. NOTE IT DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY MEANS OF CONTROLING THEM. For this reason the summoning aspect is only used by demon worshipers and the most desperate of individuals, who mistakenly think they have nothing to lose and that things can not get any worse. The only form of this Art that PC's may learn is the Banish portion and it functions at a higher difficulty than it would against other supernatural targets. Art of Demon Summoning has versions of the following Art of Warding rituals that only work agiainst demons. (Genearally only useful against third circle demons, as second and first circle demons will easily break most wards.) Alarm Ward Against (Creature), Lesser Ward Against (Creature), Ward Against (Creature), Greater Ward Against (Creature), and the relevant Ward Maintenance and Keyed Ward Rituals. The Art of Elemental Summoning This Arts allows for the construction of wards against elemental creatures as well as summoning and contacting them. This Art allows the usage of the Summon and Banish primary superanatural abilities against Elementals. It provides limited access to the Control and Bind abilities. For the most part mortals do not have the ability to enslave an elemental to there wishes, but may freely bargin with them. Elementals are generally indifferent or friendly to summoners depending on their nature, how they are approached and what is being offered. Art of Elemental Summoning has versions of the following Art of Warding rituals that only work agiainst Elementals. Alarm Ward Against (Creature), Lesser Ward Against (Creature), Ward Against (Creature), Greater Ward Against (Creature), and the relevant Ward Maintenance and Keyed Ward Rituals. The Art of Spirit Beckoning aka The Art of Prayer This Art is the perfection of prayers intended to gain the attention of the Gods. It allows the Summon supernatural primary abiltiy to be applied to Gods. It offers limited wards against spiritual intrusion that allow the Banish Supernatural primary ability to be used agaisnt a god. The particularly stupid may attempt to directly use Banish to expel a God from an area. This is considered to be uppity behavior of the highest order and is almost sure to draw the negative attention of the expelled God divine superiours. (Attempting it aginst anything more than a little God is a death wish for a mortal be they heroic and enlighted or simply normal. The Gods are the lords of existance and where slaves of the Primoridals for far to long to respond in anything but an excessive fashion to such actions.) Art of Spirit Beckoning has versions of the following Art of Warding rituals that only work agiainst Gods. Alarm Ward Against (Creature), Lesser Ward Against (Creature), Ward Against (Creature), Greater Ward Against (Creature), and the relevant Ward Maintenance and Keyed Ward Rituals. Performance: Prayer The difference between Performance: Prayer and the Art of Spirit is that Performance Prayer is more of a general worship kind of deal and the Art is a specific prayer for the God to either appear or grant some specific blessing related to its domain. Performance Prayer covers the general worship/prayer areas of. 1. You rule, I suck, General Ass Kissing 2. You rule, I suck, Please Don’t Smite Me/Thanks for not Smiting Me. 3. You rule, I suck, Please Don't Smite Me Anymore 4. You rule, I suck, please give me/Do for Me. 5. You rule, I rule, Thanks for Making Me One of Your Chosen Rule Type People 6. You rule, I rule, They Suck Please Smite Them.7. And of Course the All Important Self Righteous Self Ass Kissing/Bragging Session The Forbidden Arts There are two aspects of the summoning skills that bear mention here, Pattern Eating (The Art of Begiling) and the Art of Mortal Summoning. The Art of Mortal Summoning It is possible to apply the four primary supernatural abilites of Summon, Control, Bind and Banish to mortals (human most commonly) but its a very bad idea as it is a. very difficult b. will trigger the Resentment of Elliohim and the Curse of the Neverborn that has been attached to it. (I will not answer questions on either of these topics that have been covered in the short and long history of Creation listed on the wikia and suggest you read them if you want more info.) The Art of Husbandary has a number of rituals that effect mortals including wards. Pattern Eating aka The Art of Beguiling Technically it is possible to apply any of the four supernatural primary abilites of Summon, Control, Bind and Banish to any being inside or outside of Creation. Why? The basic building block of everyone and everything in the setting is Essence. raw magical energy and potential. Undeferentiated Essence is what makes up Pure Chaos. Essence can take on various patterns either temporarily or on a more permenant basis. The purpose of Creation was to create an area of stablized essence in which patterns of essence held fixed shapes and interacted in preshaped patterns of interaction. (aka a shaped existance) So basicaly everything and every action and reaction is a pattern of Essence reacting with another pattern of essence in either a predicatable state and fashion or in a random state and fashion. The random set is the unshaped chaos of the Deep Wyld and the Pure Chaos beyond, the other extreme would be a perfect and unchanging status or perfect predicatability, Creation is a middle of the road. All thamaturgy links into the predefined relationships of Creation to create a chain of cause and effect that will result in the desired Essence Pattern reacting in the desired fashion. It is possible how ever to force Essence to change either its state or its interactions in ways it would not normally be or function. Direct manipulation of Essence to produce an unnatural state or reaction is called Essence Manipulation. Essence Manipulaiton includes the specific game elements of Spell Casting, Ki abilites, Ki domainions, Psychic abilities and pretty much everything else in the game that you could not actually perform in real life. These forms of Essence Maniuplation are forms of Structured Essence Manipulation, in that power A gives effect B. They allow you to violate the natural order but only in a predictable fashion. (Sidenote: All forms of Essence Manipulation alter Fate by making possible a new potential or actual outcome. This make the Gods jobs harder, ****s up the Loom of Fate to one degree or another and can be tracked by its effects on destiny as laid out in the stars.) So what does all that have to do with the four summoning ablities? Well in setting the four abilites function by allowing the character to use their force of will to alter other essence patterns. When you summon a being you are attempting to force an essence pattern to change some aspects of its self and its realition to the patterns around it, specifically where it is and its interaction with that envrioment. When you attempt to Control a being you are attempting to force its essence pattern to take on a subservient role to your own and act in the fashion you desire, almost the samething with Binding but more so. Banishing is attempting to either change the location of an essence pattern or its behavior. i.e. make it difficult or impossible to enter an area. Now when one essence pattern (a being) attempts to alter another essence pattern (use one of the summoning abilites) they are either doing so with or against the structured nature of Creation its self. If using the Art of Warding and Exorsism (detailed below) they are using general "laws" and "principles" of Creation and the nature of essence its self to support there raw will. If instead you use one of the Arts of Summoning listed above, you are using specific laws and principles that apply to that type of being and its generally more effiecent or allows greater possibilities. Or you can just directly pit your will against that of your target and all of Creation, which was specifically made to prevent most beings from doing just that. Needless to say the second option is not very likely to work most of the time. There are a couple of situations in which it does work. One, in areas where the laws of Creation are weak aka Wyld Zones. In these areas the fabric of Creation has been weakened and its easier to directly manipulate essence by force of will, but by no means is it simple, safe, or predictible. Two, Creation was desigened and built by the Makers to accomedate their will and to put it simply the same rules do not apply to them as they do to others. But the Makers where not single soul beings and had multiple natures and could create new ones, so the laws of Creation are more flexable towards beings of a similar nature to the Makers, i.e other Fae, aka The Fair Folk. Short version, The Fair Folk are similar enough to the Makers and retain enough of their Unshaped nature that they can use the summoning abilities directly on others, particularly mortals and each other. Rules wise the summoning abilites are used to represent the Faes ability to maniupulate and enslave others, change their own nature, alter reality, and create, change and draw other into stories. The Art of Warding and Exorsism "Warding rituals create mystic barriers against intrusion or contamination - and Creation holds many entities that people want to keep out. Warding techniques range from unbroken lines of salt that hold back the dead to glyphs carved in door lintels and windowsills that keep out the Fair Folk in the East. Exorcism take a more dangerous course. The exorcist directly confronts a malign entity and tries to force it's departure." Warding allows the creation of durationed barriers that prevent entry by a proscribed creature into an area. This abiliity is based off of the Occult secondary ability which is used to calculate the success level of a procedure. Full Summoners have access to the more effective Binding ability and rarely make use of such weak magic as these. Wards can be stacked. When two different wards might affect the same creature, both of them operate. If multiples of an identical ward are placed only the strongest remains. To create a Ward you make a test using your Binding ability, the success level you achieve determines the Magic or Psychic Resistance check that must be beaten to breach the ward. Some wards allow success levels to be divided between the strenght of the ward and its duration. Each of the Arts of Summoning offer wards against that specific type of Creature. Wards learned as part of this Art apply to all types of Creatures but the Art does not include procedures to deal with any other type of interactions. Exorcism allows the use of the Banish skill directly against a possessing being or to drive it from an area. See Link above for Procedures The Art of Alchemy Alchemy attempts to distill the shaped essence of sorcery into a physical formula, while it is unable to achieve the heights of the true caster alchemy is nonetheless capable of producing miraculous feats. Alchemy combines aspects of pharmacy, metallurgy, and other crafts the combine and transform different materials. The "rituals" of the Art -- which are often called formulas -- take place in a laboratory stocked with equipment as mundane as a mortal and pestle or as exotic as the occult mirrors used to smelt orichalcum. As well as the commonplace techniques such as boiling and crystallization, alchemists employ strange operations such as calcination, rudification and insufflation. An alchemist may combine herbs, minerals and animal parts into magical medicines, transformed lead into gold, or even grant mortals some of the inherent qualities of the Exalted." In addition to the occult secondary ability, alchemy requires knowledge of diverse living and non-living substances, so an alchemist needs at least Magi-Science 40 for degree 1, 80 for degree 2, and 120 for degree three. (These minimum maybe increased later.) Depending on the nature of the specific procedure an equal rating in Craft(Water), Herbal Lore, Medicine or Poisons. Forging maybe substituted for Craft(Water) at a penalty of -40. The Art of Enchantment Some ancient texts say the primordial Autochthon invented this Art, and some practitioners still honor the Great Maker. Thaumaturges in the Old Realm and Shogunate made many discoveries of their own, though. In the fallen glory of the Second Age, people throughout Creation value the ability to enchant discrete items and to help maintain the Magi-tech of previous times. Objects to being chanted must be of an appropriate quality level, although they may be someone else's craftwork. Efforts to enchant an object personally crafted by the thaumaturge gains a bonus of +30 to the occult check. Enchantment tools and processes vary incredibly, from the intricate and specialized instruments Lookshy’s sorcerer-assistants to the talismans of wood, bone, shell, feathers and animal sinew crafted by barbarian shamans. Enchantment rituals are impossible to perform without the correct implementations and tools, even for the exalted. The Art of Astrology Every God in Creation as a star in the heavens, and their endless dance across the sky writes the destiny of the world large for all to see--or at least those who know what the signs mean. Mortal thaumaturge know but little of this Art, but do understand the stars have much to reveal to the wise. The Art of Astrology relies upon gaining important details about its target and translating that information into complex charts that map out the influences of the stars upon the target’s fate. Though any being capable of consciously manipulating essence controls their own destiny to various degrees, even they do not entirely escape the tapestry of the Loom of Fate. Whatever the stars they currently show, powerful essence wielding being such as the Incarnae, beings outside of fate and the Bureau of destiny can change events to render such predictions obsolete. The stars reveal likely futures and predominant influences, but free will remains ineluctably woven into Creation. Astrology requires a quadrant or astrolabe, theodolite and other instruments to measure the position and writers of celestial objects, as well as lore books that record centuries of past observations and they're inferred effects upon creation. Astrological rituals usually require little in the way of disposable components, but reusable components cost at least resource 3. A Masters Observatory cost resource 5. General Rules: When making a divination successes beyond the base difficulty are split between accuracy and duration. Duration determines how far in the future, you can divine and accuracy determines how clear and accurate answers you receive are. All divination checks are made in secret by the GM, the results of which are not revealed to the player. Fumbles result in false predictions. Attempts to divine the future of a being that is outside of fate or an event influenced by such a being automatically result in a fumble and generate false predictions. Beings outside of fate include but are not limited to Primordials, Makers, all types of Fae, The Dead, natives of the Wyld, Malfeas, or the Underworld and those who use powerful Essence Manipulation to supersede the Loom of Fate. The GM creates the prediction, assuming no interference from Heaven or beings that trigger automatic fumbles. Such interference spoils predictions. The Art of Husbandry "From calling wild beasts to the hunt to protecting fruit trees from pests to naimpulating mortals, the Art of husbandry has existed as long as the gods themselves, for many of its feats hew closely to the divine prodcedures that maintain Creation. Mortal Practitioners have discovered innumberable secrets from those gods who hold purview over living things." The Art of Weather Working Allows characters to make requests of the Council fo Winds a powerful elemental court that influences virtually all of the Weather of Creation. If two or more requests are made in the same two day period the rituals take twice as long to enact. Each request after the first increases the difficult of that and following rolls by 1 level. (This is cumulative.) until the character has left the Council alone for at least 1 week. A bad fumble or particularly egregious uses of this Art can lead to dangerous retribution on the part of the Council of Winds or the Bureau of Seasons. Procedures 1. Foretell Weather lv 0: Predict the weather for the next 1 day per success level based on the current destiny of the area. 2. Minor Changes lv 1: Change a single minor weather factor with an area less than 1 square mile and a duration of no more than 1 hour. 3. Transform Weather lv 2: Change prevailing weather conditions in a two mile radius and lasting four hours max. 4. Major Changes lv 3: The thaumaturge can convince the Court to make hugh changes such as summoning up gales or giving rain during a drought. Each ritual can affect an area up to five miles' radius for an entire day. Category:UE